Commentary on Motivation: The Motivational Process and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Do you know how to motivate?

Motivation is an integral part of human behavior in organization. Without motivation workers in organization would not be able to function properly. So what motivates them to work hard and to achieve their goals? Early motivational studies points to money as their prime motivational instrument, then their need to belong and their need for responsibility.

The motivational process contains three interacting and interdependent elements namely: Need, Drive and Incentive. A need is a psychological imbalance that needs to be satisfied; a drive pushes an individual towards achievement of a goal or task. An incentive is something that can lighten a need and decrease the intensity of the drive. For example, a worker needs to earn so that he can pay for the basic necessities of living, so the need to earn is the imbalance that must be satisfied. 

The psychological drive will push this  worker to achieve the goal of earning money for his basic necessities. Due to his hard work he will now receive money, this in now the incentive that will alleviate his needs and somewhat decrease the intensity of his drive to earn. This motivational process is a cycle that stops for a while and is reignited again the moment an individual or group of individuals finds a vacuum that needs to be satisfied.

Another Motivational tool is Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this is a five step ladder hierarchy which says that a lower level need must be satisfied first before it proceeds to the next higher level.

This is illustrated by a triangle, the lowest or the first level need that occupies the triangle is the Physiological needs or Basic needs. These are needs to sustain life such as: air, water, food, sleep etc… according to Maslow if such needs are not satisfied then one’s motivation will arise with the aim to satisfy them. Higher needs are not felt yet until he is fully satisfied with his basic needs.

Assuming that physiological needs has been satisfied we will now come to the second higher order need that occupies the triangle it is called Safety and Security needs, this is the need to be free from the threat of physical and emotional harm. These needs would be meet by working or living in a safe place and by having job security.

The third need in the hierarchy is the Need to belong or Social needs, this is the need of individuals to interact. As they say no “man is an island” we cannot exist by ourselves we need to interact because we are social beings. We need friends to whom we can trust our emotions, we need to be in a group wherein we will feel comfortable.

The fourth need is Esteem needs, this is the need to be respected by your peers, subordinates and Managers it is human nature for us to want respect and recognition. Esteem needs fulfills this wants.

The last and the highest need in the triangle is Self-Actualization needs, this addresses our need for purpose in life. The need to be honest and truthful in all of our dealings with our co workers. The need to have a job that fully satisfies an employee’s purpose in his organization.

Closely looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs we will find out that these stepladder needs somewhat goes hand in hand with the progression of an employees life in an organization. A young and newly employed individual will first try to satisfy his Physiological needs or Basic needs then as he matures in the organization his needs goes up one at a time until such time that he reaches the Self-Actualization level.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tells us that if we want a well Motivated Human Resource we need to provide them with their basic needs such as reasonable salary scheme to help them defray for their physiological needs. There’s a need also to create a safe and secure working environment.

A need to create an environment of community amongst workers to address their need to socialize. A need to respect the individual rights of workers regardless of their standing in the organization so that their Esteem needs are addressed. The last need is to ensure that workers will eventually reach their full potential in the organization so as to have the feeling of fulfilment. (Self-Actualization) - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Corruption in Philippine Government: A hopeless case?

Is a corruption free Philippine government possible? 

If we would conduct a survey why middle class Filipino families are migrating to other parts of the world. We will be surprised that one of the many reasons that they would cite is the shameless graft and corruption in the Philippine government bureaucracy.

Corruption scandals are dark shadows that have constantly tailed the Philippines since the Marcos regime up to the present government. Let us take for example the present  government. For almost a month now many elected government officials has been plagued by accusation of corruption labeled as the pork barrel scam.

The question that begs to be answered now is this: can we still slay the deeply ingrained culture of corruption in the Philippine bureaucracy? Yes we can still slay this evil in Philippine governance however it will be a pipe dream if we would say that we can exterminate this within the time span of five to ten years.

But all is not lost because there’s still hope and it rest on the shoulders of the present political leaders of this country. If only they will think of crafting a law that will make the evils of corruption and its corresponding punishments a permanent subject matter in our entire educational system. It will start during elementary up to the last year of college. So that strong value formation is inculcated against corruption in the minds of the future leaders this country.

Defeating this evil called corruption is not a hopeless case. This is actually a doable objective lets just give it a time frame perhaps twenty up to twenty five years. By then we will hopefully have a new crop of leaders with strong values formation against corruption. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The true nature of Bureaucracy

What is the true nature of bureaucracy?

Bureaucracy emphasizes the call for an organization to operate in a rational manner that effectively responds to an organization’s needs. It doesn’t rely on the selfish whims and caprices of managers and business owners. 

An honest to goodness organizational bureaucratic setup has no room for nepotism, influence peddling and the like. For example, if a person wants to move upward or be promoted in the organizational hierarchy. Under the bureaucratic setup this person must work hard for that promotion. He/She must not employ anyone’s influence or help to be promoted.

According to Max Weber there are five (5) characteristics of an ideal Bureaucracy:

1.  Formal rules and procedures that would ensure organizational order and uniformity.

2. Specialization of Labor that ensures that workers know what are expected of them in their assigned jobs.

3. Impersonality, the hot stove rule applies here there’s no special treatment whatsoever; organizational rules regulations and disciplinary actions are impartially applied.

4. Career advancement is exclusively based on merit. Selection of personnel to be promoted are solely based on employees performance on the job and not based on their connections in  the organization.

5. Well defined hierarchy; every position is clearly defined so that it will establish responsibility and order since every worker in the organization will know where he belongs.

These five (5) are the true nature of a bureaucratic organization.

However, this is not always the situation be it in private or government organization. Because many of these organizations are being plagued by corruption and incompetence. Why? Because they violate with impunity every characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy.

However, it’s not yet late to make things right, if we want organizations to run effectively and be productive. We simply have to strictly follow Max Webber’s five (5) characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

I provide custom-made Human Behavior related talks/lectures: Marino J. Dasmarinas

I provide custom-made Human Behavior related talks/lectures for Government and Private organization.  For more information feel free to get in touch with me. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

My email adds: mjdasma@yahoo.com  /  mjdasma@gmail.com

The Skills evolution of a Manager as he ascends the Organizational Hierarchy

Managers are very busy individuals they have great responsibilities in an organization and a great percentage of their organization's success or failure rest on their hands. Thus, it is a must for them to be equipped with very important Managerial Skills as they advance in the organizational hierarchy.

The First skill is Technical Skills:
This is the skill that is very important for a first level Manager (a.k.a supervisor). This means that he must have a mastery of the job that he holds; he must know every detail that happens in the achievement of their desired goals.

Let us say that this First Level Manager works as a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant. This simply means that he must know every detailed technical aspect of car manufacturing under his sphere of responsibility. The step by step process until their group’s assigned task is through.

The Second skill is Human Skills:

It is said that: “No man is an island” we cannot exist by ourselves we need to interact and communicate. This is where Human Skill comes into play. Human Skills are very important because this is where we build teams, we create networks, linkages and we harmonize every effort of every individual under our responsibility toward the achievement of organizational goals.

The Third skill is Conceptual Skills: 
This skill involves critical thinking on how to best guide the organization as it visualize its future. The Top Management such as: CEO, COO, Board of Directors Company President uses this skill to a much greater degree because the future of the organization is in their hands so to speak. They have to carefully and proactively analyze the present and future of their company.

The globalized and technology driven organizations right now calls for these Top Level Managers to harness their Conceptual Skills and use it to their advantage so that their organization will be able to survive.

As the Manager ascends the organizational hierarchy his level of skills also evolves. He actually uses these three skills levels albeit on different degrees. A first level Manager (supervisor) uses more of his Technical Skills rather than his Human and Conceptual Skills.

A middle level Manager uses more of his Human Skills more than his Technical skills and Conceptual Skills. A Top Level Manager employs more of his Conceptual Skills for the very obvious reason that he’s on top of the organization. But it doesn’t mean that he has no more use of his Technical Skills and Human Skills both skills will still be used whenever the situation calls for it. - Marino J. Dasmarinas 

A STORY ABOUT STRATEGY AND TEAMWORK (The Hare and the Tortoise)

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster.

They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.

The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race. The moral- "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

There are few more interesting things.....it continues as follows......

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax.

If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race.

The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles. The moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.

It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river.

The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency."

THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together.

Both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together.

They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier. The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could." In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort.
Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

To sum up- the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say: Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with failure; & finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.